State Line IPA

State Line Handcrafted IPA
12 oz single, $1.00, 5.2% ABV
Bought at Trader Joe’s, West Hartford

sl ipaSo I wrote about State Line’s other offering the other day (the amber ale) and hit publish and went about my day. Later, for some reason as I was daydreaming about how awesome my review was, it occurred to me that I never actually discussed the beer at all. This bothered me for a second or two, as you’d hopefully suspect.

I mean, I do sometimes refer to these pages as “beer reviews.” And for a beer that I gave a rare A+ to, you’d think I’d actually have something to say about the beer in question. But no. Not me. So avant garde.

Anyway, I mentioned this internal struggle to one of my favorite beer readers and she basically laughed at me. (By the way, since the original artist disallows his songs on the YouTube, I had a choice of covers by Rhianna or the Foos. It was actually a tough decision, so here’s the Rhianna version if that’s more your thing.)

Of course, I never really set out to be your typical beer blogger. I couldn’t even if I wanted to – or at least I couldn’t when I started doing these – simply out of sheer ignorance of the nuances of beer. Note: I could easily do it now and in fact could bang out some good parody, but again, others do that really well.

So I just do what I do… and here I am, apparently doing it again.

Stateline says:

Handcrafted

When I buy a brewery, I’m going to put “Machined Parts Crafted” or “Ape crafted” since both will be true, but it’s just funny to me. “Handcrafted.” It’s just such a dumb buzzword.

img_26582_chris-rock-how-much-for-one-ribAnyway, if you missed what State Line is, it’s just the Trader Joe’s imprint for Cottrell (lovingly handcrafted in Stonington, CT) beers. This, the IPA, is Cottrell’s Mystic Bridge IPA in a different label. (Or so I assume. I could be wrong, but I doubt it very much.)

And Cottrell makes perfectly reasonable beers. There is nothing wrong with this IPA at all. No, it doesn’t make you swoon like some other more floral or more citrusy or more piney IPA’s may do for you. It’s just a decent beer.

But again, just as with the Amber – IT’S ONLY ONE DOLLAR. Six of them are only SIX DOLLARS. And iz made especial for Trader Joe’s! And that’s just plain fantastic. Isn’t that, like, the price of Milwaukee’s Best or Keystone? Is Golden Anniversary still around? That was our college go-to, mostly because my BFFTY (Best Friend For Ten Years) used to convince the girlz that the gold medal that adorned the cans meant it was a top international beer of all time. That swill is like a buck a beer.

Just remember, $6.00 six pack in Connecticut means $6.68 six pack. Because we take pride in our bottle return programs (30 cents) that need to be subsidized by the additional high taxes (38 cents).

This page has been handcrafted.

Overall Rating: A
Rating vs. Similar style: C

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Cottrell Brewing Company
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One response to “State Line IPA”

  1. Jesse says:

    Love the shout out to our Plainville friend.

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